Postcard from Le Bourget: Air Taxis Quietly Make Progress.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

PARIS--For a variety of reasons--none worth going into detail here--I have never in my 18-year tenure at National Defense covered the Paris Air Show.

But at last, I made it to its 54th iteration at Le Bourget Airport in the northern suburbs of Paris.

L3Harris and Northrop Grumman, two of the biggest U.S. defense contractors, declared that they were not attending the show this year, which at first seemed shocking. But after day one traveling in the notoriously hot, stifling trains and buses that take passengers to the historic airport and back, I thought: "they might be onto something."

Of course, I look at a trade show through a different prism than an aerospace and defense business executive. I'm looking for interesting news, features and analysis for our readers. They're looking to ink billion-dollar deals and make connections with primes or sub-suppliers.

And their executives are not taking buses that remind me of Paul Newman in the prison movie "Cool Hand Luke" being sent "to the box" for punishment. They are transported from the city center in nice, air-conditioned limos rather than public transportation.

And if this year's show is any indication, they will all one day be picked up from the Parisian hotels and flown to Le Bourget in electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxis, or eVTOLs.

Fortunately, the enormous exhibition halls were nice and cool, which was an engineering feat. I wish I could say the same for Pare des Expositions up the rail line where they hold the Eurosatory defense trade show on alternating years. That facility should figure out how Le Bourget keeps their big buildings chilled.

The fact is, the Paris Air Show is not a defense trade show, it is a commercial aviation show with a small percentage of defense content and contractors on hand. But it is so vast that even a small percentage of it adds up to hundreds of booths pertinent to defense.

"It's a lot like the SHOT Show in Las Vegas," I told Adam, a media relations pro I have known for years. He looked at me like I had been under the sun on the tarmac for too long.

Most of the vendors have nothing to do with defense, and the others are scattered around the exhibition halls, so you really have to hunt.

"Oh," he said, finally getting my point, and acknowledging that it was probably the first and last time anyone will compare the SHOT Show to the Paris Air Show. Although both cities have Eiffel Towers, I should note.

As for the commercial side, those eVTOL...